BALSAMUM COPAIBA. 229 



to the Dutch establishments in Brazil, each give an account of 

 the Copaiba and the method of obtaining its oleo-resin. The former 

 states that the tree grows in Pernambuco and the island of Maranhon, 

 whence the balsam is conveyed in abundance to Europe. 



The drug was formerly brought into European commerce by the 

 Portuguese, and used to be packed in earthen pots pointed at the lower 

 end ; it often arrived in a very impure condition.' In the London 

 Pharmacopoeia of 1677, it was called Balaarmv/m Capivi, which is still 

 its most popular name. 



Secretion — Karsten states that he observed resiniferous ducts, 

 frequently more than an inch in diameter, running through the whole 

 stem. He is of the opinion that the cell-walls of the neighbouring 

 parenchyme are liquefied and transformed into the oleo-resin.^ We are 

 not able to offer any argument in favour of this opinion. 



In the vessels already alluded to, the balsam sometimes collects in 

 so large a quantity, that the trunk is unable to sustain the inward 

 pressure, and hursts. This curious phenomenon is thus referred to in a 

 letter addressed to one of us by Mr. Spruce : — " I have three or four 

 times heard what the Indians assured me was the bursting of an old 

 capivi-tree, distended with oil. It is one of the strange sounds that 

 sometimes disturb the vast solitudes of a South American forest. It 

 resembles the boom of a distant cannon, and is quite distinct from 

 the crash of an old tree falling from decay which one hears not 

 unfrequently." 



A similar phenomenon is known in Borneo. The trunks of aged 

 trees of DryohaUinops aroinatica contain large quantities of oleo-resin 

 or Camphor Oil,' which appears to be sometimes secreted under such 

 pressure that the vast trunk gives way. "There is another sound," 

 says Spenser St. John,* " only heard in the oldest forests, and that is as 

 if a mighty tree were rent in twain. I often asked the cause, and was 

 assured it was the camphor tree splitting asunder on account of the 

 accumulation of camphor in some particular portion." 



Extraction — Balsam Capivi is collected by the Indians on the banks 

 of the Orinoco and its upper affluents, and carried to Ciudad Bolivar 

 (Angostura) ; some of this balsam reaches Europe by way of Trinidad. 

 But it is obtained much more largely on the tributaries of the Cais- 

 quiari and Rio Negro (the Siapa, l9anna, XJaupes, etc.) and is sent down 

 to Para. Most of the northern tributaries of the Amazon, as the 

 Trorabetas and Nhamunda, likewise furnish a supply. According to 

 Spruce, in the Amazon valley it is the tall virgin forest, Caaguagii of 

 the Brazilians, Monte Alto of the Venezuelans, that yields most of the 

 oils and gum-resins, and not the low, dry caatingas, or the riparial 

 forests. The same observant traveller tells us that in Southern Vene- 

 zuela, capivi is known only as el Aceite de polo {wood-oil), the name 

 Balsamo being that of the so-called Sassafras Oil, obtained from a 

 species of Xectandra. 



Balsam Copaiba is also largely exported from Maracaibo where, 



^ Valmont de Bomare, Diet. d'Hist. Hat. 'Motley in Hooker's Journ. of Botany, 



i. (1775) 387. iv. (1852) 201. 



- Botankche Zdtung, xv. (1857) 316. * Life in the Forests of the Far East, 



ii. (1862) 152. 



